Liverpool Lime Street

Liverpool Lime Street is a railway station complex located on Lime Street in Liverpool city centre. Although publicly a single, unified station, it is operationally divided into two official railway stations: Liverpool Lime Street High Level, the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool and the oldest still-operating grand terminus mainline station in the world; and Liverpool Lime Street Low Level, an underground Wirral line station (part of the Merseyrail network) connected to the main terminal building by a pedestrian subway below street-level. Despite their operational distinctions, both stations are integrated from a passenger perspective, sharing signage, access points and overall station identity. Lime Street High Level is one of 18 stations managed by Network Rail, while Lime Street Low Level is managed directly by the train operator, Merseyrail.

A branch of the West Coast Main Line from London Euston terminates at Lime Street, as does the original Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Journeys from the station cover a wide range of destinations across England, Scotland and Wales.

The station building was designed by John Cunningham, Arthur Holme and John Foster Jr and built by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to replace their existing terminus, Crown Street railway station, which was deemed to be too far from the city centre – construction beginning in October 1833 and the station opening in August 1836. Due to growing popularity, the station was later expanded by Joseph Locke and others in 1849 and again by William Baker and Francis Stevenson in 1867, which included the construction of the world’s largest arched train shed at the time as well as a second train shed being added in 1879.

Following nationalisation of the railways in 1948, Lime Street station saw various upgrades, including improved signalling, a redeveloped concourse and new retail and office space. Electric rail services to Crewe began in 1962, followed by the station’s first InterCity service to London in 1966. In the 1970s, with the commencement of Merseyrail Wirral line services to Lime Street Low Level and the closure of all other long-distance termini in Liverpool, Lime Street became the city’s main rail hub. The Pendolino service was launched in the station by Virgin Trains at a ceremonial unveiling in 2003, improving travel times to London; and full electrification of the Liverpool and Manchester railway's former route was completed in May 2015.

The station is fronted by the former North Western Hotel, a large Renaissance Revival style building, which has been the Radisson Red Liverpool Hotel since December 2022; and the Concourse House office block with several retailers stood outside the southern train shed from the 1960s until their demolition in 2010. Lime Street is the largest and oldest railway station in Liverpool, being awarded 5 stars in ''Britain’s 100 Best Railway Stations'' by Simon Jenkins, one of only ten to achieve this.

History

Origins

The original terminus of the 1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was located at Crown Street, in Edge Hill, to the east of and outside the city centre. However, even before Edge Hill had been opened, it was apparent that there was a pressing need for another station to be built, which would this time be closer to the city centre. Accordingly, during October 1833, the construction commenced on a purpose-built station at Lime Street in the city centre; the land was purchased from Liverpool Corporation for £9,000 (). The means of connecting the new station to L&MR's network came in the form of a twin-track tunnel, which had been constructed between Edge Hill and the site of the new Lime Street station a year prior to work being started on the station itself; during the construction effort, the tunnel was frequently used to transport building materials for the station onto the site. The station was designed by the architects John Cunningham, Arthur Holme, and John Foster Jr.

During August 1836, Lime Street Station was officially opened to the public, although the construction process was not completed until the following year. This building was designed with four large gateways, two of which were intentionally nonfunctional. For its early operations, as a consequence of the steep incline uphill from Lime Street to Edge Hill, trains would be halted at Edge Hill and the locomotives detached from the trains; the practice of the era was for the passenger carriages to be taken down by gravity, during which the rate of descent would be controlled by brakemen located in a brake van. The return journey was achieved via the use of a stationary steam engine located at Edge Hill, which would be used to haul the carriages up to Edge Hill by rope. This system was constructed by the local engineering firm Mather, Dixon and Company, who worked under the direction of the engineer John Grantham. During 1870, this practice came to an end; instead, trains would enter and depart the station by conventional means.

Early expansion

Lime Street Station was a near-instant success with the railway-going public. Within six years of its opening, the rapid growth of the railways had necessitated the expansion of the original station. An early plan for the enlarged station would have involved the erection of an iron roof, similar to that found at Euston station (pre 1960's rebuilding) in London, which was a ridge roof supported by iron columns. However, a different proposal quickly gained the approval of the station committee. A single curved roof was produced by a collaborative effort; designed and load tested by engineer Joseph Locke, with construction contracted to iron founder Richard Turner, and the work checked by engineer William Fairbairn and manufacturer John Kennedy. The expansion work was performed at a cost of £15,000 () and was completed during 1849, by which time the noted architect William Tite had also been involved. Meanwhile, during 1845, the L&MR had been absorbed by its principal business partner, the Grand Junction Railway (GJR); the following year the GJR became part of the London and North Western Railway. Amongst the features which date back to the 1846–1849 rebuild of the station are a group of four columns which adjoin former Platform 1, they have been attributed to engineer Edward Woods.

By 1857, a pair of granite columns had been erected outside the station entrance; over time, these had become known as the "Candlesticks". During 1867, further expansion of Lime Street Station was required to cope with operational demands; changes included the present northern arched train shed. Designed by William Baker and Francis Stevenson the train shed featured a span of , leading to it being recognised as the largest such structure in the world at the time. It was also the first train shed in which iron was used throughout. During 1879, a second parallel southern train shed was completed, which had been designed by Stevenson and E.W. Ives. This second train shed featured dry construction techniques,That is, without the use of mortar. while each bay reportedly took only three days to build.

Lime Street Station is fronted by a large building, built in the Renaissance Revival style, which formerly housed the North Western Hotel. Designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the building was built during 1871 and served as student accommodation for Liverpool John Moores University from 1996. It was announced on 28 September 2018 that the building will be restored as a hotel by the Marcus Worthington Group at a cost of £30m. It will reopen as the Radisson RED Liverpool Hotel in 2020.

As a result of the Railways Act 1921, which grouped the majority of railway companies together to create the Big Four, Lime Street Station passed into the ownership of the newly formed London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) railway. The station played an early role in the development of mail trains, the Post Office first dispatched mail by train from Lime Street.

British Rail era

Upon nationalisation of the railways during 1948, Lime Street Station became a part of the London Midland Region of British Railways. On 28 January 1948, a new signal box controlling movements in and around Lime Street was commissioned; this signal box would remain in use for almost 70 years, being one of the last lever frames boxes still in operation by the time of its decommissioning during 2017–2018. During 1955, the station concourse was redeveloped and modernised. During 1959, preparatory work commenced at Lime Street for the first stage of the electrification of the West Coast Main Line. On 1 January 1962, regular electric services between Lime Street and Crewe were officially started.

The railway lines to former platforms 10 and 11 were removed by 1965. On 18 April 1966, the station hosted the launch of its first InterCity service, which saw the introduction of a regular service between Liverpool and London. On 11 August 1968, the ''Fifteen Guinea Special'', a return service to Carlisle, was hauled by the Black Five locomotive 45110 from Liverpool to and back. Arriving back at Lime Street at 7:58 pm, this train marked the end of British Railways' final steam-hauled mainline passenger journey.

An office tower block named Concourse House, along with a row of small retail outlets, used to stand outside the southern train shed, obscuring the arches. These dated from the 1960s, and by the 2000s had become run down. They were demolished as part of a comprehensive refurbishment completed in 2010.

During the 1970s, a new urban rail network, known as Merseyrail was developed, resulting in four terminus stations being taken out of use in Liverpool and Birkenhead centres.These were Birkenhead Woodside, Liverpool Riverside, Liverpool Exchange and Liverpool Central High Level stations. As a consequence of this restructuring and rationalization, only Lime Street remained as a terminus, thus serving as a central point for the whole region for medium- and long-haul routes. At the same time, the Merseyrail network provided commuters with ease of access across the whole Merseyside region to the one remaining large terminus.

Between 1983 and 1984, the station concourse was again altered and refurbished at a total estimated cost of £7.4 million. This refurbishment included the construction of the black glass building which partially surrounds platforms inside the northern train shed, as well as the glass screen which separates the concourse from platforms inside the southern train shed. The alterations also coincided with the opening of the International Garden Festival. On 29 November 1984, the new development was officially opened by Princess Anne.

Privatisation era

On 20 October 2003, the new Pendolino service operated by private rail operator Virgin Trains, which introduced a faster service between Liverpool and London, was ceremonially unveiled in the presence of the company's founder and chief executive officer Richard Branson. Designed from the onset to be a tilting train, it quickly replaced much of the previously-allocated locomotives and rolling stock used on the West Coast Main Line, namely the British Rail Class 86, 87 and 90 electric locomotives and Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaching stock. Prior to this, the fleet had been first introduced into passenger services from Birmingham International to Manchester Piccadilly on 23 July 2002 to coincide with the opening of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

To help celebrate several high-profile occasions, such as Liverpool's role as European Capital of Culture during 2008, and the city's 800th anniversary in 2007, a £35 million redevelopment grant was issued for the station and its immediate surroundings. The Lime Street Gateway Project saw the demolition of the aging retail parade and office block located in front of the station, and an improved frontage and public plaza constructed in its place. Subsequently, Lime Street was voted ''Station of the Year 2010'' at the National Rail Awards. The development was overseen by English Partnerships and was completed in October 2010.

The main concourse features a pair of statues of comedian Ken Dodd and politician Bessie Braddock, a work entitled "Chance Meeting" by sculptor Tom Murphy, which were unveiled by Ken Dodd himself during June 2009. On 31 August 2014, the Earl of Wessex unveiled a memorial to the Liverpool Pals at the station. The memorial, which comprises two bronze friezes, was also sculpted by Tom Murphy. During 2014, former Platforms 1–5 were fully refurbished by national rail infrastructure maintenance company Network Rail.

Electrification to Manchester and Wigan

Completion of electrification of the former Liverpool and Manchester Railway's route, and the line to Wigan via St Helens Central, during May 2015 led to a recast of timetables. This included the introduction of a brand new TransPennine Express service to Newcastle via Manchester Victoria, running alongside the existing service to via and . It was unclear whether suitable electric rolling stock would be available in time for the completion of the work, but it was confirmed during April 2014 that electric trains would be available to operate the new electric services, and the first trains were introduced from March 2015, initially on the service to , with services to , and following over the course of the year.

2017 wall collapse

At around 17:45 on 28 February 2017, the station was cut off after a wall collapsed into the cutting between Lime Street and Edge Hill, causing more than 200 tonnes of debris to fall onto all four of the tracks running into the throat of the station. While the line was blocked, Virgin trains terminated at Runcorn and other trains terminated at Liverpool South Parkway. The debris was cleared up, with repairs made to the overhead wires, and the station reopened just over a week later on 8 March 2017.

2017–18 station remodelling

During 2017, work commenced upon a £340 million remodelling programme intended to improve Lime Street Station by modernising its signalling systems, install new platforms, and other to better conform with current demands. A major impetus for the work was the age of the station's signalling, the core of which dated from the 1940s and was increasingly difficult to acquire knowledgeable staff for its operation and maintenance; furthermore, as resignalling of the existing station layout offered only slightly less work than the implementation of an entirely fresh layout, only without the benefits of being able to do so, it was decided to take the rare occasion as a convenient chance to make various alterations and improvements at the same time. Perhaps the most noticeable change made for the perspective of passengers was the creation of an additional pair of platforms, which were built in the large space available between Platforms 7 and 8 (now 6 and 9); all of the other platforms were also lengthened and widened as a part of this work.

According to industry publication ''Rail Engineer'', the old layout of the station was relatively complex and posed some operational difficulties; many of the alterations sought to ease or eliminate some of these issues. As the curving of Platform 6 (now 5) had been a source of long-term driver difficulty in maintaining signal sightings, the platform was reprofiled to be straighter, permanently ending the problem. The new layout provides five platforms on each side of the station; beyond being simpler, the change facilitates the departure speed being increased from 15 to 25 mph and is also compatible with being maintained by modern mechanised equipment. In conjunction with the layout changes, new Mk3D overhead line equipment was installed along the route between Lime Street station and Edge Hill. Control of the signalling was transferred over to the centralised Manchester Rail Operating Centre.

The remodelling of Lime Street had been deemed necessary in order to provide the capacity for additional services to Glasgow, which are set to start during 2019. Various new retail outlets, along with a supermarket, were also established by work performed during the programme. To accommodate the work, the station was mostly closed over a twenty-three day period, which started on 30 September 2017; during the latter stages of this blockade, limited services ran to/from Huyton and some destinations beyond this. The station closed from 2 June 2018 to 29 July 2018 to allow more of the remodelling to be undertaken.

Station layout

Liverpool Lime Street is divided into two sections: the mainline station, which offers national inter-city and regional overground services including local City Line routes, and services on the Wirral Line on the Merseyrail network, located underground between the mainline station and St George's Hall.

Mainline station

The mainline station, known as Liverpool Lime Street High Level (station code: LIV) is covered by the vast iron and glass roofs dating from the 1870s. The north train shed is fronted by a 1871 French Château styled building occupied by the Radisson RED Liverpool Hotel. The hotel is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2022.

Platforms 1 to 5 are shorter than 6 to 10, the latter dealing mainly with long-distance services to London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Norwich. Access to platforms 1–5 is through a ticket inspection barrier similar to airport passport control, while former platform 7 was gated with the creation of new shops and facilities. Former Platforms 8 and 9 were still "open".

In 2009, new buildings were erected in the old "cab road" area between former platforms 7 and 8. Until the 2018 station remodelling, these housed customer lounges, the Virgin Trains customer service point, and an ATM, and there were retail units which had coffee shops amongst the units.

There were also four non-passenger tracks. Three of these were headshunts, created in the northern trainshed to turn locomotives around: Track A, in between former platforms 1 and 2; track B, serving former platforms 3 and 4; and track D, for former platforms 5 and 6. There is also a platform with no passenger service between former platforms 6 and 7, known as platform E, or sometimes affectionately as platform 6¾.

Facilities

Toilets, booking offices, shops, a left-luggage office, taxi ranks and coffee bars are amongst the facilities provided. The main booking office is operated by Northern Trains. The concourse of the station contains several shops, including branches of M&S Simply Food, Starbucks, Upper Crust, Krispy Kreme, Costa Coffee, Boots and WHSmith. Car parking is managed by APCOA

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